Finance director stole nearly £1.4m from her employers

Jane Jones, of Cullingworth Fields, Cullingworth, in Bradford, spent 1,366,322 on holidays, clothes, cars and properties over nine years as she enjoyed a lifestyle "beyond her means", Leeds Crown Court heard.

The 45-year-old, also known as Rebecca Bellan, pleaded guilty to theft by transferring the money from Leeds document and data storage firm Squirrel Storage into her own bank accounts.

The court heard she was jailed for 18 months at Hull Crown Court in 1996 for dishonesty offences at a previous company where she tried to defraud creditors.

Squirrel Storage's managing director gave Jones, who had been working for one of the firm's suppliers following her release from prison, a credit controller position, said Philip Adams, prosecuting.

The mother-of-two was subsequently promoted and had responsibility for finances at the firm from 1999, earning up to 90,000 per year, with a total income of more than 500,000 over 11 years.

Annual turnover increased from 2m to 12m while she was at the company but in August 2009 she lost her position after it was found financial controls were "extremely lax".

The new finance chief spotted irregularities when he received a complaint about an unpaid invoice and found Jones had a separate account that she paid company money into.

Jones spent more than 800,000 on holidays, clothes and cars, with the money supporting a lifestyle she would not be able to otherwise afford, Mr Adams told the court.

She also bought four properties with the stolen money – one for her family, another for her elderly mother and two which she rented out – and these were worth about 1.2m.

She made electronic bank transfers to her account of amounts from 445 to more than 21,000, and occasionally hid these among supplier payments.

"She admitted what she had done right from the outset (of the investigation) and worked with the company's auditors to identify each and every transaction she had carried out," said John McDiarmid, defending.

Jones, who lacked formal accountancy qualifications when she was first employed, has since seen her marriage break down because of the disgrace brought upon her family.

Jailing Jones for three-and-a-half years, Recorder Jonathan Sandiford said: "You had an opportunity in 1999 to go forward. But you were stealing from this company and it's perhaps fortunate that this company was successful as the loss of 1m would cause lots of companies to fail.

"There are many people who wouldn't mind getting by on 90,000 a year. 1,366,322 is more than many people earn in a lifetime.

"This was all about greed for a lifestyle you wanted to have for you and your family."